COUNCIL CANDIDATE?

Taranaki Daily News, 21 February 1935, Page 5

COUNCIL CANDIDATE?

REPRESENTATIVE OF RETAILERS.

PROTECTION OF THEIR INTERESTS. The advisability of providing for direct representation of retailers’ interests on the New Plymouth Borough Council was discussed at a well -'ttended meeting of the Retailers’ Association committee at New Plymouth last night, and it .was decided to call a meeting of all retailers interested in the proposal at an early date, irrespective of whether or not they are members of the association. Lack of direct representation, members said, had been a handicap in bringing the claims of the business area before the council in the past, and it was unanimously agreed that, provided a suitable candidate could be found, a seat should be contested at the elections in May. • Criticism of what was stated to be a policy of deciding vital matters in committee and not discussing them in open council, where reports of the various shades of opinion held by councillors could be made public by the Press was voiced by several of the committeemen, who considered that if it were necessary for the council to do its business on the present system the committee meetings shbuld be open to the Press. “There are only one or two men on the present council who open their mouths at all,’ said one committeeman. “What we want is a man who is not afraid to say what he means. We want fresh blood.” Other members related instances of necessary works in the Devon Street area which they stated had been either delayed or neglected because there was no member of the council directly representing shopkeepers’ interests. The opinion was also expressed that the retailers’ candidate should be a man sufficiently senior in trade or independent enough to take active part in contentious matters without fear that it would reflect on his business. The decision to call a meeting of interested retailers was unanimous.